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LAKELAND, Fla. -- Jeff Jones felt a burning sensation in his elbow after throwing a ball in a drill during spring training.

And that was the beginning of the end of his career.

Jones suffered through the rest of the 1984 season and had surgery. After sitting out the 1985 season, he tried to come back.

"I was nowhere near the same," Jones said. He pitched for two more seasons but never climbed above Triple-A Toledo.

Now, he is the Tigers' pitching coach.

Looking back, Jones was born too soon. "Tommy John was still playing," Jones said.

In 1974, Dr. Frank Jobe changed baseball forever when he operated on Dodgers pitcher Tommy John, reconstructing his ulnar collateral ligament. John won more games after the surgery than he did before it.

Since then, hundreds of professional baseball players have undergone the same procedure -- now called a Tommy John surgery -- and the success rate has climbed to 75-80%.

"Obviously, it's saved a lot of careers," said Kevin Rand, the Tigers director of medical services and the head athletic trainer.

The Tigers have four pitchers in their clubhouse at Tiger Town who had Tommy John surgery: Duane Below, Casey Crosby, Melvin Mercedes and Michael Morrison.

Now, all four are healthy and are trying to make the Tigers' Opening Day roster. Morrison has virtually no shot to make the team. Crosby and Mercedes are long shots to make the bullpen. And Below is an interesting candidate for the bullpen.

But just being in the clubhouse is a testament to how surgeons perfected the procedure, to the trainers and advancements in rehabilitation protocols and techniques and to the players' hard work.

These days, the surgery has become almost common.

Way too common.

Trending younger

Now, here comes the scary part.

In the old days, this elbow injury usually happened to older players. But now surgeons are performing the procedure on kids who aren't old enough to vote. Some aren't even old enough to drive.

"Reconstructions are being done on 14-, 15-year-old players," Rand said. "That is a disturbing trend to sports medical professionals."

Why is it happening? "We don't know that yet," Rand said.

But there is a strong suspicion it's happening because of all the travel baseball that young kids play these days. It is not uncommon for some kids to play more than 75 games in a summer. Then, they move into fall baseball and do winter camps and have indoor practices and out-of-state tournaments and win-at-all-cost coaches ride these young arms until they fall apart.

Now, here comes the even scarier part. When a young pitcher undergoes Tommy John surgery, nobody knows how long the reconstruction will last before they suffer another injury.

"We are trying to gather as much data as we can," Rand said.

The Tigers have never had a player require a second Tommy John surgery -- and a second one is worse. Only 25% of the pitchers who have a second Tommy John surgery recover and continue to pitch, according to Rand.

There are some common sense solutions. Youth coaches have to pay attention to pitch counts and limit the number of innings young kids are throwing, making sure they get the proper rest.

And kids need to do less pitching and concentrate more on long toss. Just playing catch. At some point in the year, they need to take a break from baseball. They need a chance to recover.

Throwing harder

Now, a word about the four Tigers who all share the same scar down their elbow. Though the surgery is common, it is an exhausting, painful, grueling recovery.

"No matter what, it's the player who is driven to get back on the field," Rand said. "I can have all the rehab programs and protocols and all the tools, but it's still the players, not us."

Below had surgery on a Friday and started rehab on a Monday. "I would throw through the pain to break through the scar tissue," he said.

Morrison went through rehab at Tiger Town with Tyler Stohr, another pitcher in the Tigers' organization. "Rehab was tough," Morrison said. "They always told us, 'This is what Duane Below did. Follow Below. He kind of set the guidelines.' "

Now, there is one strange, well-documented positive that comes after Tommy John surgery. Pitchers throw faster.

Before the surgery, Below threw in the 89-93 m.p.h. range. After the surgery, he was throwing 93-96. Before the surgery, Mercedes threw around 93. After the surgery, he was shocked when the velocity of his fastball jumped significantly.